There are several types of content, please clarify what types of content will be tied to seasons, and how each will be gated for non-seasonal characters.
Types of Content
- Story/campaign
- Side quests
- Overland locations
- Instances/Dungeons/Cellars
- Items/Gear
- Cosmetics (no effect on character performance)
- Mechanical - new class/new skills/level cap increase/paragon
For each, what type of season exclusivity will there be?
A. Season Exclusive: content is only available to seasonal characters and content expires at the end of the season (never available to character not made during the season).
B. Season Early Access: Content is available only to seasonal character during the season, but becomes generally available when season ends.
C. General Availability: Content is available to both seasonal and non-seasonal characters.
The reason for this request is that to the best of my knowledge, in previous versions of Diablo, Season Exclusives were limited to gear, cosmetics, and mechanical temporary gimmicks. The prospect of story, location, side quest and class content being tied to a season (as opposed to an expansion) would make a season more of a mandatory prospect than previously. Given that season 1 will start before the initial release has been available for the length of a season, many are hesitant to restart from scratch before they feel like they’ve had reasonable time to complete the content they already paid for. If choosing to NOT play season 1 means you permanently miss out on a large chunk of content, it’s not much of a choice.